Barry Richard won the GOP bid for Tippecanoe County sheriff. He’s not ready to say it would be his only job.

As a stunned Dave Heath came to grips with the fact that voters in Tuesday’s Republican primary dumped his bid to return as Tippecanoe County sheriff, it was tough to tell whether he was more frustrated that he lost or with the implication that Barry Richard believes being sheriff could be a second job.

“I don’t get it, I really don’t,” Heath said Tuesday night, minutes after the final tallies came in. Heath was elected sheriff in 1986 and served two terms, but he lost to Richard, a former Lafayette police officer and executive director of the Lyn Treece Boys & Girls Club, by a 51.8-to-48.2 margin.

“It’s a 24/7 job, all the time. It just is. To think otherwise is just wrong,” Heath said. “You might want to go tell him that.”

Before telling him, the question went to Richard in the initial glow of Tuesday’s victory: The Tippecanoe County sheriff’s job would be your full-time job, right?

Richard didn’t give a direct answer. He said the sheriff’s department, if he wins in November, “would be my No. 1 priority.” He started to outline a plan that would tie the sheriff’s department to all sorts of local nonprofit, social service agencies, including the Boys & Girls Club. But as for leaving behind the Boys & Girls Club post he’s had since 2009? “That,” Richard said Tuesday, “will be for the (Boys & Girls Club) board to decide.”

Two days later, with a few nights to sleep on the prospect of being sheriff, Richard wasn’t backing away from the idea that he could mix running the biggest Tippecanoe County department with other pursuits.

“Nothing’s set in stone — make sure you spell that out,” said Richard, who, at this point, has no Democratic or independent opponents on November’s general election ballot. If no one files, he will replace Tracy Brown, who is finishing his second term, in January.

“I don’t want to give a definitive answer to you, because I am who I am today because of the Boys Club in my life back when I was growing up as a teenager.”

Doing double- and even triple-duty is nothing new for Richard, whose penchant for a full plate is well documented. Case in point: When he was selected to run the Boys & Girls Club, he was still working full-time as the Lafayette Police Department’s D.A.R.E. officer. At the time, Richard said he would devote “50 to 60 hours a week” to each job, if necessary.

“Throughout my life, if you look at my work history, I’ve always had at least two full-time jobs, if not more,” Richard said. “At one point I had two full-time jobs, a part-time job, managed real estate and had two personal businesses of my own that I ran. I mean, give me six hours of sleep at night, and that’s all I need.”

There are plenty of reasons why Richard beat Heath, the county’s Republican chairman, in the primary. That includes a combination of a conservative push to tweak the GOP establishment; questions about the assumed, hand-picked succession plan of those who came through the ranks at the sheriff’s department; and even Democratic crossover from voters who still have beefs from Heath’s days as Lafayette mayor (though not, apparently, for Richard’s switch from Democrat to Republican in 1989 when he was on the city council so he could take on then Democratic Mayor Jim Riehle).

Richard says the win was mostly a validation of his life’s work in the community.

Questions hang out there for Richard, though: Isn’t it fair for people to expect a full-time sheriff, who isn’t working a side job, let alone running a Boys & Girls Club with two facilities in Lafayette? Shouldn’t voters have known he wasn’t sure about leaving his current post to devote everything to a department with 152 employees, a jail with 500 prisoners, courthouse security and more?

“That’s a misleading representation,” Richard said. “I will definitely give the sheriff’s department a full-time’s work, with the safety and the concerns, working with the community above and beyond what they would consider full-time. Then what I do on my other time — well, you know, there’s 168 hours in a week, and if I choose to work half of it, I don’t really see how anybody would have problems with that.”

Indiana law doesn’t require a full-time sheriff. Steve Luce, executive director of the Indiana Sheriffs Association, said other sheriffs have held down second jobs. Often, he said, that comes at the tail end of a second and final term, when the sheriff is looking to get back in the workforce.

“It doesn’t happen that often,” Luce said. “Our advice is that if you’re going to take the job, be there 24/7. In today’s world, with the liability of a full-time jail and the operations of a sheriff’s department, that’s something we recommend, which is a full-time sheriff. But that’s a balance a community has to decide.”

Richard said he won’t make plans known until July, when time runs out for Democrats and independents to sign up to run in November. But he said he wouldn’t do anything as sheriff to sacrifice security and police work. He said his plan, still in the works, to link social service agencies with the sheriff’s department will be “more than any other sheriff has done” and “will exceed anyone’s expectations.” So, he said, he was willing to take Heath’s criticism in stride.

“He doesn’t know what that’s going to look like,” Richard said. “And to be honest, nobody does at this point. I’m just saying, what we need to do is just relax.”

Fair enough. As long as Richard understands he’s about to work for a bigger board of directors — bigger, at least than the one at the Boys & Girls Club. Tippecanoe County residents will expect a sheriff who gives full attention to the job.